WORLD'S WEIRDEST COMICS Pt 3

REAGAN’S RAIDERS (1986)

75 year – old Ronald Reagan, V.P. George Bush Sr., Caspar Weinberger and the rest of Reagan’s cabinet become Rambo-esque Special Forces agents fighting for truth, justice and the American Way. (Well, maybe not for truth or justice…)

HERBIE (1963)

The strangest super hero in the history of comics, Herbie is a short, morbidly obese boy with a bowl haircut and a never changing dim-witted expression. His father calls him “a fat little nothing”. Dad is oblivious to the facts that Herbie can walk on air, talks to animals, travels through time and is indestructible – superpowers he apparently gets from his lollipops. In the issue pictured above, Herbie is called upon by Winston Churchill to capture the Loch Ness monster. After he succeeds, he is knighted by Queen Elizabeth. In another story, Herbie suspects a milkman of embezzling milk money, so Herbie poses as a baby and drinks up his entire supply of milk. Fans of the comic speculate that Herbie may be mentally ill, and these stories depict his inner fantasy life.

CHAPLAINS AT WAR (1946)

16 stories of enlisted ministers and priests who sacrificed their lives so that other soldiers could live. (Hey – I said they were weird, I never said they were all funny.)

RICKIE AND DEBBIE IN SARDINELAND (1967, reprinted 1987) (Odd, since the family look as if they are from the 1940’s – B.A.)

This comic book is intended to get teenagers enthusiastic about commercial sardine fishing. Cover dialogue balloons; Ricky; “Look at that! I already knew Maine was famous for vacations .. that’s where we’ve come to spend ours right now” (Exposition anyone? – B.A,) Debbie;” And now you know that Maine is famous for sardines too!” Dad; “That’s right, Debbie. Millions of Maine sardines are caught every year, with the total catch exceeding a billion annually!” (A billion annually, but you want to make sure you mention the millions leading up to the billion too! – B.A.)

(At least they didn’t name the kids Sam ‘n’ Patty – B.A)  

UPDATE !!!!

P.S. PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE MONTHLY

In the last installment of “The Worlds Weirdest Comics” (01/08/12), I ran a short piece on this long running U.S Army publication. I have since received new information on the venerable publication. In 2004, P.S. ran a story called, “Mogmart’s school of Magical PM”. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s attorneys sued the publication for copyright infringement. Apparently these Brits forgot how we saved their sorry asses (excuse me, ‘arses’) during “The Big One” (WWII)., and are no longer grateful to the U.S. Army for saving the world from being ruled by Nazis. Anyhoo, rational thought prevailed, and “Mogmart’s” was defended AS PARODY, which we should all have the right to do.

ALSO – It has come to my attention that there is currently a BEST OF P.S. PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE MONTHLY book available through Abrams Comicarts Publications. Undoubtedly it is available due to the fact that for several years it was created by legendary cartoonist Will Eisner. The book just covers the years when Eisner was at it’s helm.